SONADOW. After Chaos Control goes awry, Sonic and Shadow go AWOL...landing in a parallel dimension with many familiar faces, but a huge problem. Getting back would be so easy - that is, if everyone wasn't insisting that Sonic is 'Prince' Shadow's slave...

IHeartYou: Good decision! On the site seems to have become a wasteland with spam reviews everywhere so I don't check on there anymore...now one Amy reaction coming up!

Q.I.L: I'm usually on Sonic's side. But he is my fav character :p

Cookie: Thanks! Here you go!

RandomFreakazoid: Aw, what a nice review! :D And yes to the TV tropes phase - though I don't actually think it's over yet, I still love reading that site! ;p I'm really glad you enjoy all the characters - I do believe it gets a lot easier to write characters in a way that they're fun for everyone if you genuinely like them, which I do. It also makes writing a lot more joyful if you like the characters yourself. As for the time this fic has been running, yeeeeeah, I always hated it if an author broke off a fic I love, so I decided not to do that if at all possible. With real life and everything there is almost no time left for fanfic, but I am going to finish this thing, even if it takes ages. Almost there! XD But yeah, I always wanted to give it another little twirl affter the main story arc of the medieval adventure had wrapped up - I also wrote this fic because I saw so few portrayals of a sonadow fic where both of them were reasonably IC, so by including the prince-versions and having them meet up it was a nice way to contrast the way those two are often written in (terrible) slash fics and how the usual Sonic and Shadow would react to it. It was very therapeutic. XD Also, a lot of pairing fics often break off after the main characters got together, so I thought it was fun to explore their dynamic during their everyday a little bit :)

Guest: I love my references! :3

RibbonRevolution: It is my firm conviction that Shadow would be able to bring a gun anywhere, up to and ncluding an US aiport ;P Probably using hammerspace...

Roxen: It was one of my fav lines from the first chapter! :D

Chapter 70: Three Is a Crowd...Five Is An Army

Sonic the Hedgehog was currently wanting to die.

To demonstrate that point, he was also currently sitting on the couch in Tails' living room, bent over with his head in his hands and groaning.

"Dear gods, why?"

(They had been back for about half an hour by now. After Amy's very abrupt departure from Sonic's apartment – and the realization that, really, Sonic was currently in NO state to go after her - what had followed had been a very cringing (Sonic) and annoyed (Shadow) shower and then a reluctant run back to Tails' place afterward. Sonic knew going after Amy now probably wouldn't be a good idea even if he did manage to find her (and do what, even? Damage control? A talk about privacy, again?) and there were still the dopplegangers staying at his kid brother's place that he couldn't very well leave him alone with. As soon as they had arrived, Shadow had announced he was going to go and train his double some more, which Sonic translated as 'ticked off and needing to destroy stuff with Chaos Spears', which he was fine with. For Shadow-standards, that was probably healthy.

Sonic wished he could go destroy stuff with Chaos Spears.)

"Uh, Sonic?"

"Huh? Oh. Hey, Tails." Sonic grimaced as the little fox poked his head into the room, still looking sleep-ruffled as he had probably been up late working on the interdimensional transfer-thingamajiggy.

"Are you alright? I thought you'd be, uh, happier after…y'know…s-spending the night at your place with Shadow?" Tails said, only stumbling over his words a little, but concern for his brother apparently outweighing his trepidation. Sonic could feel a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth at seeing the kit apparently trying to follow through on his promise of looking out for him, but then a painful flashback to the events of the morning made him flinch before it could form.

"Well, I was, until Amy showed up. She came right as, uh, well…" Sonic hastily broke off that sentence, realizing there was no good way for it to end (other than 'I did', which he was not going to add here), but fortunately –

"Oh no, what?!" Tails flung his hands in front of his mouth. "She actually caught you two kissing?!"

This was asked with the special mixture of disgust and fascination of all nine-year-olds at the topic, in Tails' case also accompanied by two fluffed tails in alarm.

"I'll keep the details to myself, thanks," Sonic gave his brother a dry stare. "And I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind. This is terrible enough as it is…" he sank back against the backrest of the couch, groaning.

"Sure. I was just about to go and get Rouge down from the waterpipes, and Knuckles from his tree. Be right back!"

Sonic looked after the kit off to collect their more eccentric friends and shook his head, traipsing into the kitchen. Knuckles was evidently an earlier riser than Rouge, because he came in soon after, nodding at Sonic.

"I swear to the gods, if you start laughing now I will set your island on fire."

"Right." Knuckles was actually doing an impeccable impression of a straight face.

"I should have just let them lynch me in the other dimension," Sonic muttered. "This day can't possibly get any worse."

(It was of course at this point that Rouge walked into the room, already looking like she was having spasms, but one look from Sonic fortunately prevented her from saying anything. Sonic considered taking his clone on a nice practice run going to, say, Timbuktu.)

xxx

Amy Rose was crying.

And punching. (Her punching bag. So far.)

But mostly crying.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh-huh…why?!"

She couldn't even think straight, her head was already pounding as if some sort of jet engine was going off nearby and it was starting to seriously hurt. She tried to take a couple of deep breaths to make it stop.

The jet engine didn't stop.

Then a movement from the neighbouring building's roof caught her eye and she looked out the window.

"…oh." Amy Rose managed.

xxx

Sonic drummed his fingers on his crossed arms. "Alright, see, the secret to doing loop-de-loops is accelerating, and doing so all the way."

"My head hurts."

"Concept too difficult, or because you just fell on it?"

In what was already a remarkably close approximation to either ticked-off-Sonic (or, really, standard-Shadow…) face, the royal Sonic - also sitting at the bottom of a stone loop-de-loop, holding his head - glared at Sonic. "Guess."

"Shoot. Alright, training's over." Sonic grabbed his yelping doppelganger without much ceremony, lifting him up bridal style much like Shadow had the other Knuckles only a few days ago. "Now we gotta go fast…"

Xxx

They came to a screeching halt outside of Tails' workshop only 1.5 seconds/heart attacks later, the other Sonic's face frozen in that particular look of people slightly too whiplashed to scream, but definitely considering it for later. Sonic hadn't quite that noticed that yet, the entire hedgehog far too concerned with the safety of his other friends, the fact that the little yellow house still stood on the cliff as peacefully as ever only letting his heart rate slow down a little. Fortunately, the door banged open the very next second, an agitated (but unhurt) Tails standing inside it, waving.

"Sonic! Come in, quick! They're just broadcasting where it is on TV!"

"Is anyone-?" Sonic started, quickly following Tails inside the living room where Knuckles and Rouge were already watching the BREAKING NEWS segment that had interrupted the regular programme.

"-dramatic scenes in the centre of Station square," the red-headed human reporter Scarlet Garcia was saying, standing with her microphone in front of a residential housing block that Sonic recognized as being close to the neighbourhood of his apartment. "It is as of yet unclear whether this recent attack of Doctor Robotnik has anything to do with the strange earthquakes and sky discolouration of the past few days or what his current plan is. He seemed to be on the verge of attacking a residential building but seems to have halted, though we couldn't yet get a clear picture of what exactly is going on. There appears to have been fighting with an as of yet unidentified defender. We now go live to-"

Xxx

Doctor Ivo Robotnik, madman, evil genius and engineer extraordinaire stared down at the single obstacle currently in his path. He was hovering over the building his target was lying under, which today was the city's main powerlines crossing, both of which he would need to irradiate to turn the entire power grid of the city into a telepathic field generator, brainwashing Station Square's citizens into a loyal army.

(He was actually quite proud of that plan.)

Originally, he had planned to use the field generator radiation for something different - mainly to protect himself from the imminent apocalypse two days ago - but now that that seemed to have been averted, he considered this a much better use for it. And also, with the pesky hedgehog down for the count, there would be nothing standing in his way…!

Well.

As said, almost nothing.

"You annoying, little – stop fighting me, will you!"

Amy Rose stood, hammer securely grasped in her hands, the faintest tremors in her limbs almost undetectable when she tried to square her shoulders harder, draw breaths with more force so they wouldn't shake. There were already signs of destruction around her, the roof of the house scorched with laser- and burnmarks, small craters of shattered cement where a metal claw had impacted. But the scientist's hoverpod also looked far from its best, its metal hull already dented in places, large imprints of a hammer testifying to the source of the damage. Now Amy raised her face up towards Robotnik, jade eyes narrowed.

"No."

Robotnik pinched the skin above his enormous nose, looking like he was possibly internally counting to ten.

"You…! Listen, why do you have a death wish, you stupid girl? Stop playing for time! No one will save you, Sonic is out of his mind! And I mean look at you, you can't possibly hope to win!"

The girl below him gritted her teeth at the words. They were all true, of course. Some of her headquills were already torn at the edges, small cuts on her limbs and burnt edges of her dress testifying to the fight so far and who had been on the losing side.

Nevertheless she glared up at him, face set and teeth bared, standing in his way with her hammer raised even as her eyes were glistening with tears.

"No, you listen! This is the worst day of my LIFE! And now you show up at my home and make it worse! I will fight you, and I will give it all I've got!" she shouted, chest heaving, blinking away the liquid spilling over. She raised her hammer again.

"Come at me already!"

Robotnik gave the girl a long, slow look. She had gotten better, of course. Over the years, anyone hanging around that blasted hedgehog certainly would, or they wouldn't survive for long. He had to admit, she had actually been stronger than he expected even – the damage his hoverpod had taken already was proof of that, as was his slight change of tactics, trying to reason with her instead of plain fighting.

But when it came right down to it, they both knew it wouldn't be enough.

Robotnik took a breath.

"If you don't move, Amy Rose, you will die in this."

Amy swallowed, her tone equally low.

"Then go ahead and do it."

Robotnik paused for just a moment, but then nodded and pressed a button.

"...very well."

In response, the front door of his hoverpod opened and two enormous, throwing-star-like robots burst forth from it with concussive speed, whirring blades from all sides obscuring their shape as they hurtled toward her, fire in their wake.

Amy lunged straight at them, hammer raised.

For a moment, there was only the blast and the flying blade-stars and the girl suspended in empty air above the pavement dozens of metres below…

Xxx

"Oh…oh gods…!" the royal Sonic was watching the scene unfold on the live television, looking absolutely terrified. "This is horrifying, someone has to save her! Sonic, can y-…Sonic?" the prince blinked, only now realizing that the space next to him where his doppelganger had stood until now was very noticeably empty.

"Uh, where did he-?"

"Oh, Sonic?" Tails asked. "Left about two seconds ago, which means he should be right-"

xxx

And then, just before hammer would have met hoverpod and blades would have cut into flesh, there was a blue tornado surging up from the side of the building, a rising whirlwind that collided with the whirling knives seconds before they would have reached Amy. Far too fast for anyone to see, the blades were knocked back with a force that sent them crashing back into Robotnik's hoverpod, sparks flying. Next, the whirlwind seemed to bounce off the collision, colliding with Amy in midair and taking her back onto the building, all within fractions of a second.

Then the whirlwind dissolved. Two sneakers landed on the roof of the power plant with a decisive thud.

And when the smoke cleared, the already familiar green eyes and the wide grin of the blue-furred newcomer now holding the dazed hedgehog girl would not have been necessary to recognize a very familiar voice.

Sonic turned to look over his shoulder and grinned wide at the figure in the hoverpod.

"You were saying, Buttnik?"

xxx

"Oh my gods."At the house, the royal Sonic again glanced over from the TV to Tails. "He is so cool."

"I know, right?!"

xxx

"Sonic…" Amy stared at him, her eyes flickering with a mixture of surprise and brief, sheer hope - but then changing into immediate hurt as she undoubtedly remembered the morning, Sonic noted grimly. Then she gasped. "Sonic! You're bleeding!".

"…oh." Sonic managed, his eyes travelling down where hers where looking. As soon as she said it, he was now also becoming acutely aware of a vicious, cutting pain in his side – the reason for it obviously being the large gash above his hip where Robotnik's blades had cut him after all.

Sonic noted there was already quite a bit of blood running down his side.

He hitched the corner of his mouth up into a smile. "Heh. Guess that's what happens when I get out of practice fighting the lardbutt for a week. Think I'll live, though."

Still, he couldn't quite hide the wince or the slight stagger as he set her down, fervently hoping that Robotnik hadn't noticed either of them.

"You…" Amy swallowed. "You…came. I didn't think…"

"Hey, 'course I came," Sonic protested, before adding, slightly softer, "I'll always be there to save you, Ames. You know that." Before she could reply anything, he turned quickly back toward the hovering scientist, also assuming a familiar cocky stance, arms crossed in front of his chest. He only briefly threw a last look over his shoulder.

"Oh, and by the way? I thought that stand of yours was pretty brave."

"Now hold on a - what is this?!" Robotnik barked at that moment, finally getting his sparking hoverpod back under control. "You're not supposed to be all – you!"

"Hm, yeah, so sorry to rain on your parade," Sonic smirked. "But now the hedgehog's officially back in the house, so you better beat it, Egghead!"

"Beat it?" Robotnik scoffed. "With you bleeding like that? I think not." A grin was spreading on the scientist's face like a disease. "Sane or not, try and stop the next attack, I would like to see that."

Sonic narrowed his eyes. The pain in his side was lacerating, but he had to push it aside, a feat that luckily became easier with practice. He couldn't back down now.

"I'll stop whatever ya wanna throw at me, Eggy!"

Robotnik smirked, about to push a button. "And I shall."

"You will…you will do nothing of the sort!"

Three heads turned. This was mostly to do with the fact that a voice that sounded just like Sonic's had just spoken, but it had come most definitely not from Sonic's mouth, but from just below the concrete railing surrounding the roof they stood on – and then a hand was flung over from the outside, clearly belonging to someone trying to climb the building. There was some muttering to be heard.

"Ohhh….running up this thing was such a bad idea…ah-hah!" the hand was joined by another arm flung over the railing, and what followed was clearly a (slightly out-of-breath) blue hedgehog, pulling himself on top of the concrete railing. And pointing menacingly at Robotnik.

"Evil sire! I shall end you!"

Robotnik stared. So did Amy. Sonic would have covered his face with his hands, but didn't actually want to get blood all over his visage.

"Oh gods. Kid, what are you doing here?"

"Oh…oh no." Amy whimpered at this point next to him. "I've finally lost it. All of them look like Sonic now."

"No, Amy, that isn't –" Sonic briefly turned his head, "look, he looks like me, yeah, but – other me, go home! This is too dangerous, alright?!" Sonic glanced back toward his doppelganger, feeling increasingly desperate with the wound in his side and now two people to protect. "We didn't cover this particular cracked egg yet, mostly because I really didn't think you'd need it."

"But…but I came to help! You saved my kingdom, I want to help save yours. That's…that's what heroes do, right?" The other Sonic looked at him, pleading. "I want to be like you, I really do!"

"What – is that…is that a transdimensional doppelganger?! Ah-hah! I knew something was off with the Chaos field! My theories were right!" Robotnik pointed triumphantly. "So the apocalypse was all your fault! You were the one who dragged the Chaos Emerald off into another world! And the doppelganger you brought back is the proof!".

Sonic raised an eye ridge at him. "…wait what? You figured all that out just by seeing him now?"

"What can I say? I am a genius," Robotnik briefly stroked his own moustache, "And speaking of which, I don't appreciate you trying to end this world before I could conquer it!" he shouted, letting his fingers thud down on the controls of his hovercraft. "So prepare to perish together with all your friends!"

"Dodge!"

Sonic shouted, and all three hedgehogs immediately burst apart, the large cannon that had opened up in front of the hovercraft firing onto the spot where they had all stood just a second ago.

"A doppelganger?!" Amy shouted over the din, staring at Sonic with wide eyes.

"It's a long story!" Sonic shouted back, weaving to dodge another shot by Robotnik. He just needed to get a little bit closer so he could hurl himself at the hoverpod…

"So wait, when I saw you this morning with Shadow, that wasn't really-?"

"Amy! SO not the time!" Sonic yelled back, inwardly grateful that at least having to keep three hedgehogs in view at once was keeping Robotnik from honing in on them with any kind of accuracy; he was mostly focusing on Sonic, which Sonic was fine with – even injured, he was still faster than the other other two, for now, and him keeping Robotnik distracted meant…

"…fine. But we're not finished with this," Amy grunted, then abruptly hurled her hammer at the hoverpod, making an impressive dent in its side.

"Take this! I hope you go down in flames like my love life!" she shouted (and, to her credit, Robotnik for once looked a bit disturbed for a second - before he caught himself again).

"You little…! Agh!" Robotnik barked, wrestling with the controls of his hoverpod as it had started rocking worryingly after Amy's attack, and then yelped as a second object collided with his craft – this one a very adrenaline-hyped hedgehog.

"Yes! I succeeded! Behold me, Sonic! I have almost vanquished the fiend!" the other Sonic bounced back onto the roof and gave his doppelganger the most excited grin.

"Dear gods, this is worse than Tails when he was four," Sonic muttered under his breath, before cupping his hands so he could be heard over the pangs and sparks Robotnik's hovercraft was now emitting, "Yeah, great! And now please get back here where it's-!"

"There won't be any safe spot for you now!" Robotnik roared, face now red with anger. "My auto-tracking system is easily able to fire at all three of you, and none of you is fast enough to escape it this time!" He punched one of the (few still functional) buttons on the console and Sonic felt a cold shock wash through him as all three of them were abruptly encased by red laser-targeting cages that moved with them when they did. Robotnik's hovercraft had also started to beep and Sonic knew that they were all seconds away from being incinerated unless they could somehow figure out how to break -

"Chaos Control!"

"Agh!" There was a yelp from both scientist and a royal black hedgehog simultaneously, mostly because the other Shadow had apparently managed to Chaos Control on top of Robotnik's head.

(The fact that this was the other Shadow was also definitely confirmed by the fact that he very much looked like he definitely had not meant to appear where he did).

"Shadow! My m-you came to save me!" the other Sonic exclaimed, staring at his former master in disbelief and awe, hands clasped in front of his face. Sonic tried not to sink into the floor.

"What is thi – will you stop saving each other! Get OFF, you mongrel!" Robotnik hollered, flailing about and generally managing to hit anything but the (equally) flailing prince – right up until he did.

"I am of royal blood, you plebe-ahhh!"

The other Shadow yelped as he was smacked across the face, losing his foothold (little as it was) on Robotnik's head right as something else in the controls cracked and sparked from being hit by a flailing elbow.

There was a flash of reflected sunlight as the fake Emerald the other Shadow held was knocked out of his hand in an arc, and the prince lost his footing and fell.

Sonic felt his heart leap into his throat, the scene unfolding before his eyes in slow-motion.

He wouldn't be able to save him. Not with the wound in his side. The other Shadow would hit the pavement a hundred metres below and it would be too late…

"Shadow!"

At which point the other Sonic screamed and leaped headfirst over the roof's railing.

xxx

The other Shadow's eyes were wide as he fell, staring shocked and breathless at the sky - right until something eclipsed the sun from his viewpoint, and it turned out to be his Sonic falling headfirst toward him.

"-n-no," the black-furred prince rasped – and then gasped as the falling Sonic reached him, grabbed his shoulders mid-air and shoved the fake Emerald right into his chest.

"I grabbed it! Chaos Control us, NOW!"

Xxx

"Okay, now he is clearly just showing off," Rouge shook her head. "Dramatic rescues in mid-air, seriously."

Knuckles raised an eye ridge. "You liked it when I did it, back on Meteor Herd"

"…I momentarily forgot how to fly back then. Hush."

xxx

"Chaos…Control!"

There was an umph!- noise as two hedgehogs re-appeared two metres above the roof and fell down on top of each other in a pile, groaning, but obviously alive. Sonic felt a rush of light-headedness that he was pretty sure had nothing to do with the bloodloss.

The other Shadow lying underneath the other Sonic seemed to find his speech first.

"You…Sonic. Pet. You could have died."

The other Sonic nodded, sounding about as shaky as his partner. "…yes. But you would have died for sure, if I hadn't done something. And my doppelganger said that we can generally think faster than you two," he added, nodding toward Sonic.

"Did he, now," the other Shadow sent Sonic a poisonous glare at that, which Sonic ignored. "Well, clearly not smarter," the prince added under his breath with a grumble.

The other Sonic nodded. "He said that too, yes."

"Will you stop this nonsense!" There was a roar as Robotnik appeared to have gotten his ever more badly damaged hoverpod under control for the third time and the hedgehogs on the roof froze, heads whipping back toward their common foe. Robotnik leaned heavily on the controls, brows above dark glasses drawing down as he glowered at Sonic.

"You might have returned to the planet just in time, and she might have protected the city until you got here, but I can see you swaying on your feet already, Sonic…and I haven't even unleashed my greatest weapon!" he raised his voice as he lifted a remote in one hand. Sonic tensed up again, could feel Amy doing the same next to him, wondering whether he should tell her to run (while privately knowing how little that command was usually heeded by his friends…) but then it was already too late.

"Say hello to…Metal Sonic!"

Sonic felt his blood run cold.

Metal Sonic had just about killed him the last time they had fought and he had been far better prepared then, not exhausted from a week in another dimension and losing his blood on a rooftop… Sonic stifled a curse under his breath and shifted into a battle-ready stance. He tried to ignore his vision turning ever so slightly woozy…Robotnik pressed the button on the remote.

"Are you perhaps," a very smooth voice enquired from above at this point, "looking for these two?"

Five heads heads turned. And then five very different expressions greeted the fourth arrival on the rooftop - one smirking black hedgehog, hovering down from the air and holding up the head and body of a blue hedgehog robot, both halves neatly separated and fizzling.

"Not quite up to your usual standards, Doctor – barely needed the help of one fake Emerald to defeat him this time. Fortunately, Tails called me in time so I could grab it." Shadow remarked casually, dropping the slack body of the robot onto the floor and instead pulling the translucent gemstone from his quills, twirling it once in his hand. Robotnik was already giving him a sullen glare.

"…Shadow. How fortunate you apparently returned to this dimension as well."

"I entirely agree," Shadow replied, tone still pleasant. "Hello…Amy," he added, carefully more looking at the left side of the hedgehog girl's head than into her eyes. Then, however, his gaze snagged on Sonic side.

"…he hurt you," Shadow said softly.

The hand that was still holding the Metal Sonic's head crushed it effortlessly.

"I suggest you cut your losses and run, Buttnik," Sonic added at this point smoothly, easily stepping slightly between the scientist and his (slightly currently murderous) partner.

Faced with one bleeding (but still halfway capable) hero and two other (still quite unhurt) hedgehogs looking now suddenly all looking quite aggressive, the human scientist seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Oh, fine. But you haven't seen the last of me! No matter what kind of bizarre alliance you seem to have going on now…" he shouted (though adding the last part slightly under his breath). "Hedgehogs. Bah!"

"Meh. Have we ever?" Sonic quipped, giving an easy shrug toward Shadow and Amy. "Say, is that building tipping sideways or is that just-?"

"Sonic!"

"Sonikku!"

There were two equally alarmed shouts as the hero of Mobius abruptly was about to keel over where he stood, his fall only broken by both other hedgehogs lunging forwards and catching him securely before he could fall.

"…oh," Sonic managed, giving both of them a somewhat bleary smile. "Bloodloss. Um. How about we go back to Tails…?"

Which was about when the world went entirely black for him, which Sonic figured wasn't the worst that could happen at this point anyway.

To be continued...

Well well well, I may write about the fastest thing alive but clearly his speeds don't translate to my updating schedule, heh...still, almost nearing the end now, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for all your comments, they usually get me back to the writing table :p In my country we currently have a bunch of lengthened weekends/holidays going on so that may have helped a little with finally getting to upload this one. Hope you liked it and if you read, please review! :D

Small edit: I also just got an (anonymous) review that said I should rename this chapter to "Three is a crowd, five is an Amy", which I thought is a fantastic pun that you all also should get to enjoy. ;p Thanks for that one!

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.